On Thursday we had to sign the petition for the courts. We received a call in the morning from Tanya and she asked what middle name were we going to use for Mariia and if we wanted to ask her before we decided...she needed it in a five minutes! I have always liked the name Grace for a girl. Given the events earlier in the week, it also was fitting. We petitioned the court to adopt her as Maria Grace Leggiero. We also decided to use one "i" versus the two we have been to make it a little easier once she is home.
After leaving the notary office, we went with Kevin and Stephanie to a large open market. I have affectionately named this area "Air-Mart". We spent a few hours browsing through the market and Kelly bought an industrial strength hula hoop for Maria to use with her friends. This thing is made of metal and hopefully will not become a weapon at the orphanage!
We are not allowed to go to the orphanage until after 4pm on school days. When we did finally show up Thursday night, Maria seemed to be much more relaxed around us. She has started to let her guard down and be more affectionate toward us both. I think though the meeting on Wednesday was very stressful, it allowed her to see that we were fighting for her and gave her a say in the process. I am sure someone with a psychology degree could tell me what this means but we are just glad that she has begun to realize what all this means!
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| Air-marts finest hula hoop! |
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| We got back on Thursday and the kids were all doing chores sweeping the playground. No excuses when she gets home about doing work around the house! |
1 comments:
When she stayed with us, she enjoyed vacuuming! In fact, she and Kiril would argue over who got to vacuum the living room. We ended up with very clean carpets for several weeks! ;)
By the way, I LOVE the name! :)
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